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Growing Up

by Brendan Hufford

I explore how SaaS companies *actually* get customers

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Featured Post

⚡️ Care about your audience? you need this (Growing Up 74)

Hey Reader, In late 2023, I got an interesting email. “Hi Brendan, See you have a massive following on LinkedIn and post a ton of content about SaaS companies. I'm working with several other influencers helping them land brand deals/advertise products in their LinkedIn posts. Would love to help you do the same - open to a quick chat?” Now look... I never respond to cold emails. Ever. But this was… interesting. I replied. “Gimme the deets.” Turns out, a young enterprising SaaS AE was spending...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

Hey Reader, In our latest deep dive on how Superside gets customers, one line has stuck with me. Not everything is a winner. This line was in reference to one of Superside’s offers that didn’t sit well with the design community, but context isn’t really necessary. As a social media marketer, I’ll be the first to tell you that general phrase needs to be ingrained in your brain. We fail… a lot. But truthfully, all marketers should let it sink in. Not everything is a winner, but that doesn’t...

7 months ago • 3 min read

Hey Reader, Blitz-scaling. Hyper-growth. Growth. At. All. Costs. Horrifically bloated marketing programs yeeting millions of dollars into the atmosphere praying to hit critical mass as fast as possible. Right? Maybe. Growth can also look a different way. Navattic, founded in 2020, just doubled YoY. And here’s the kicker. They only have one marketer. If you’re a solo SaaS marketer, or want to reduce overwhelm and internal company politics, you’ll want to read this. I sat down with Natalie...

8 months ago • 6 min read

Hey Reader, Blitz-scaling. Hyper-growth. Growth. At. All. Costs. Horrifically bloated marketing programs yeeting millions of dollars into the atmosphere praying to hit critical mass as fast as possible. Right? Maybe. Growth can also look a different way. Navattic, founded in 2020, just doubled YoY. And here’s the kicker. They only have one marketer. If you’re a solo SaaS marketer, or want to reduce overwhelm and internal company politics, you’ll want to read this. I sat down with Natalie...

8 months ago • 6 min read

Hey Reader, "TaLk t0 YoUR CuStoM3Rs" - some LinkedIn thinkboi Customer research. Lots of people give it lip service. It’s easy to talk about on LinkedIn. But few are willing to put a calendar link at the footer of every email their company sends to let customers book time on their calendar. I get it. That’s a bold move. Especially when you have 150,000+ customers. But… I’ve seen it. I watched our guest today do exactly that. Because THAT, my friends, is exactly what you have to do. Marketing...

8 months ago • 9 min read

Hey Reader, OpenView has a problem. So does Airbnb. So does Doordash. So does Uber. They all have two audiences. On one hand, OpenView has to build trust with investors. And they have, to the tune of a $570M fund (their seventh). But, they also have to build trust with founders who they want to invest in. As a VC firm, if they can’t build trust with both of those wildly different audiences… they lose. Typically seen in marketplace SaaS co’s, the “double audience problem” is real and requires...

9 months ago • 7 min read

Hey friend, For most of my career, I’ve answered one type of question: Let’s call it a “how” question. How long does it take for SEO to get results? How do you increase customer acquisition? How do you build an audience on LinkedIn? Over the years, I’ve noticed that these questions are extremely helpful for practitioners. And look, I was a high school teacher for a decade so I LOVE answering those kinds of questions. I literally can’t shut up and am happy teaching everything I know. But what...

9 months ago • 1 min read

Hey Reader! We surpassed 20K subscribers! Thank you. Seriously. 🥹 To celebrate the occasion, I've curated a roundup of some of Growing Up’s most popular links. Some of you may have missed them. Others are worth a revisit. Either way, these are all loaded with actionable tips to have a killer second half of 2023. Thanks for continuing to grow with us, - Lindsay A step-by-step walkthrough of why even great companies fail. 🗒️ The Gist: WP Engine founder Jason Cohen wrote one of my favorite...

10 months ago • 3 min read

Hey Reader, Brand pages don’t have to act like brand pages. Let me explain. As many of you know, I’m on the market for my next home in brand marketing. As such, I’ve been asked what some of my favorite brands are on social media during interviews, to which I often reply, Sprout Social. I’m a social media professional so this feels obvious, but what I like about their strategy is that it’s loaded with authenticity, wit, and value. Sure, there's brand content sprinkled throughout their...

11 months ago • 4 min read

Hey Reader, Earlier this week, a member of All In asked the community how to ignite a spark when you’re in a creativity rut, and I gave him some advice: Go outside. Or scroll through TikTok. Or surf the web (do people still say that?). But don’t just do those things. Pay attention. Look for things that make you pause. Did it make you laugh? Pull your heart strings? Break your brain? Stop and ask yourself ‘why?’ And then ask, ‘how can I bring this into my work?’ You’d be amazed how quickly the...

12 months ago • 4 min read
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